Cyclone
by Designated Crowd Ninja
Summary: The Straw-hats meet a girl and her brother, who are soon persuaded to join them, but like everything else in Grand Line, it's never really that simple.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 - The Assassin and the Scientist**

It was a relitively peaceful day on the Thousand Sunny; well... peaceful was the wrong wourd for it, dull would be more accurate. The winds were non-existant, their cola supply was low and it was baking hot. Luffy, Usopp and Chopper simply sat on the rails, fishing for fish that were too smart to go anywhere near the surface today, as it was simply too hot to be hyper. Of course Nami and Robin wouldn't miss a chance to top-up their tans, with Sanji waiting on them hand-and-foot. Franky was somewhere below deck and Zoro was (predictably) working out; he saw the heat as 'environmental training'.

Whispy, insignificant clouds drifted uselessly across the sun; as they didn't block any of it's rays. Then, just as Usopp sighed, a loud 'Woohooo!" could be heard in the distance. And on the horizon, something broke the waters surface and rose in an arc before sinking again.

"What was that?" asked Luffy excitedly, jumping up on the rail

"I don't know but it's dinner" said Sanji, taking a lazy drag on his cigarette

"A sea king probably" deliberated Chopper"

Then the arc rose again, closer this time and now the voice said "Is that all ya' got fucker?" it seemed to belong to a girl. The sea king seemed to take offence to the voice as it suddenly shot underwater. The strawhats looked round for where the sea king would rise again, but it didn't - not for a while anyway.

A dark shape suddenly rose behind them flew high over the entire ship, accompanied by a loud "FUCK YE~AH!". The shadow belonged to what could only be described as a monster-koi that was almost as big as Sunny. Luffy's eyes were as wide as saucers as he cried "MEAT~!" and shot his arm towards the Koi to grab hold of one of the massive webbed spines that arched from its back.

"Wait!" cried Ussop "Your a hammer!" he desperately tried to remind his captain, but it was too late, the giant Koi submerged under the water again; rocking the ship with the splash it caused

_~S~_

Hitomi clung onto the spines as the Koi dived underwater again, she was not going to loose to a fish. As she felt the water pressure building she reached for the hunting knife strapped to her leg when she noticed someone else clinging to the spines, and they appeared to be losing conciousness. She rolled her eyes, she'd saved Tatsu from drowning often enough in order to know that this guy was a hammer. Reluctant to give up her lunch, she let of the spine and grabbed the guy round his waist, and swam upwards. As she did she knew for sure this guy was a hammer, as he weighed more than a normal human would in the water

_~S~_

Just as Zoro had been about to dive in the water, someone grabbed hold of the railing and launched themselves on board. It was a girl - about the same height as Robin and no older than Sanji or Zoro - with long choppy purple hair, her eyes were stormy grey and she was slender, with lightly tanned skin, she was wearing a black bikini and had a hunting knife strapped to her thigh; on the front of her left hip was a black tribal-styled tattoo, no more than four inches wide, it was a tiger bent in the shape of 'yang' with the yin half fitted in next to it. Luffy was draped over her shoulder. "He yours?" she asked, pointing to him with her free hand; her eye brow arched slightly.

"Yeah," said Nami, stepping forwards as the girl dumped Luffy on the ground and Chopper raced forward to revive him

"_Mellor_~"

"See ya," she said, with a short wave before flipping backwards off the ship into the water.

Sanji cried in anguish, dropping to his knees by the rails. "I didn't even get her name," he wailed "My first sight of a mermaid and I-"

"She wasn't a mermaid shit-cook, she had legs" Zoro pointed out, but before their arguement could start, the giant Koi burst out of the water again; this time it was almost directly beneath the ship and making it rock dagerously in the water, sending a cold wave over them. Even in the heat, the sudden cold bath was not welcome.

_~S~_

She dragged the huge fish onto the beach and - using her hunting knife - cut about one eighth out of it and then into chunks about four inches in width. As she was lighting the fire she was greeted with a smack on the up-side of the head "What the fuck?" she demanded angrilly

"You trying to give me a bloody heartattack?" demanded her brother, a tall man with lightly tanned skin and darkish red hair. "Don't just disapear without telling me!"

_~S~_

Thankfully, the winds had picked up enough to carry them a little further towards the island their log-pose was pointing at, they were still moving slowly, but at least they were getting somewhere.

"_Meat~_" moaned Luffy half-hanging over the side of the ship, drooling buckets. The smell of barbequed fish was floating in on the breeze, no amount of rationed food could quench the hunger seeing that giant koi had stirred in him. The excitement the girl and that sea king had caused had dulled quickly, but hadn't gone completely, Sanji wasn't the only one who wanted to know who she was.

"I can see an island on the horizon" said Zoro's voice over the loud speaker. Immidiately the crew gathered at the front of the ship to catch a glimpse of this island. True enough, there was - the island was only small and looked pretty much uninhabited apart from the small boat they could see anchored near the beach. As they got closer, they saw that the boat's hull was painted blue and had been patched up hap-hazardly in one or two places (kind of like the Going Merry in his final days), there were no pirate or marine flags to speak of, just a plain sail. Soon enough they were as close as they could get without beaching the ship. They dropped the anchor. The smell of cooking meat was strong now and Luffy was off the ship before Nami could even say "Don't wander off"

Luffy immideatly found the source of the smell, which wasn't that hard as the person was cooking was sat on the beach, eating an already cooked piece of fish. Luffy stopped short of the campfire and drooled. "Help youself," she said, gesturing to the pieces of fish on the end of sticks propped up round the fire and recognising him from earlier, although Luffy didn't register her until he'd downed three chunks of meat at least.

"You're the girl from earilier!" he observed through a mouthful of food so it sounded more like 'wrore v giwr fwm eawliwr', he swallowed the mouthful "I'm Monkey D. Luffy! I'm gonna be Pirate King!"

She laughed "That's awesome dude, cus I'm gonna be the worlds number one Kunoichi. The name's Hitomi Cho by the way"

Sanji chose this moment to sweep down on her, taking her hand as if to kiss it "It is an honner that I finally get to meet you again, fair maiden, as last time we were not properly introduced. I am Sanji, you may have heard of me-"

"Oh! You're the dude with the really dicked-up wanted poster ain't ya?" she said, as Zoro dropped down on her other side, laughing.

"Oh but it looks nothing like me" he insisted, ignoring Zoro

"Yeah it does" she said "And help yourself to the fish" diregarding Sanji, she turned back to her own chunk.

Nami stared, this girl didn't even seem to give a damn about who they were, let alone care that they were pirates - even though she'd recognised Sanji from his poster, which should of been enough indication that they were very dangerous. Either that was becuase she was stupid, or stroung enough to hold her own against them; stupid was the more likely of the two. On the concept of a free meal, Nami didn't hesitate to dig into the fish.

Inbetween mouthfuls of surprisingly tasty fish, they spoke casually and somehow the fact that they were pirates just didn't seem to bother her even remotely, which did bother Nami "Excuse me," she interjected, cutting off Usopp "I can't help but wonder what you do for a living"

Hitomi observed her for a moment "Kunoichi" she answered, though it was blatant that she didn't really understand the question

"Yeah but that doesn't earn money does it?" but Hitomi nodded

"For, you know, spying, like assassinations and shit" she said, which made Usopp (who was sat next to her) and Chopper (who was sat next to him) freeze and cling to eachother in horror.

"Y-y-you're an a-a-a-assassin?" Usopp managed to stammer

"Yeah, but I won't kill an innocent man" she added, Nami never got to ask what she meant by this, as she was cut off by someone getting off the boat

"Jesus Cho, I leave you for ten minuets and you invite pirates to dinner? I'm really beginning to think you're mentally impaired in some way" The group (aside from Luffy) turned to face the owner of the voice.

The guy was a little shorter than Zoro and he had floppy dark red hair and dark eyes; there was a thin plait hanging from just above the nape of his neck. He was wearing nothing but a pair of bermuda shorts, showing off his well-toned chest and arms. On his left calf was a tatto of four aces - all singed with flames flicking off them - with several different coloured stars, two cherrys, a pair of dice and an 8-ball, all on a misty grey background with tiny black dots. He turned back to the boat for a moment and grabbed a shirt of the side. Before he pulled the shirt on they caught a glimpse of a black dragon tattoo across his back, its head was on his right shoulder blade and its tail curled on the back of his left hip - it was in the same tribal style that Hitomi's was in.

"Guys, this is my brother Tatsu" she introduced, chucking him the ramaining half of his fish-on-a-stick. He caught it deftly and bit a chunk out of it, nodding in greeting as he chewed.

"Y-y-you're not an assassin too are you?" asked Usopp, still clinging to Chopper and scared out of his wits

Tatsu swallowed his mouthful and smiled softly, as if he understood their terror "No, I'm a scientist, but don't worry about Cho, unless we're short of cash she won't pick up your bounties."

"You know who we are then?" asked Nami, glad that the girl's sibling had some common sense at least, and he wasn't to hard on the eyes either

"Who doesn't? You caused quite a bit of havoc at Enies Lobby, quite admirable" he dropped down in the gap between Chopper and Robin "Pirates with higher bounties wouldn't take that on, but your good people, doing that for you nakama"

"You're a scientist?" asked Chopper excitedly

"And you're a tanuki"

"I'm a reindeer you bastard!" he yelled angrilly

"Okay, okay"

Hitomi ignored them as they launched into a conversation about things she didn't understand using words she didn't understand and she looked out over the sea, where she could see the beginnings of a mast coming up over the horizon. The mast was shortly followed by a blue-green striped hull.

"Are they here for us or you?" she asked, and everyone looked out to where she was pointing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 - Tanto Island**

They watched as the marine ship drew steadily closer, being pulled along by the oars that extended from the hull. As Hitomi tried to think if she'd done anything wrong recently Tatsu was already telling the straw-hats that the log-pose wouldn't have been affected by this islands weak magnetic field and that they could have whatever remained of the fish.

"Cho, come on, we're leaving." he said sternly

She frowned at him "Why? We can take the fuckers" she pointed out

Already walking towards their boat, he turned so he was walking backwards "Which part of 'low profile' isn't getting through to you?" he asked, sounding slightly patronising Muttering curse-words towards her brother, she rose and followed him. Still walking backwards, Tatsu spoke to the straw-hats "We'd stay to help but... we're not in the best situation at the moment" he apologised

Although he didn't completely understand what he meant, Luffy nodded. "Wait, what do you mean? Why are you keeping a low profile?" questioned the ever-curious Nami, who was probably wondering on some level if she could scam any money from them. Tatsu just smiled and, in one fluid leap, he boarded their boat; which, seemingly on it's own, raised it's sail and moved out of the shallow waters, then set off round the island at a speed that just didn't seem possible due to the lack of wind and the fact the no one seemed to be rowing. But there was no time to think about any of that when the Marine ship fired the first cannon, which would of hit the group full force had Luffy not knocked it off course.

_~S~_

Now fully dressed, Hitomi sat on the edge of the boat, looking back at the island. She could see the pirates and the Marines exchanging cannon blasts, but the pirates were at a great disadvantage. Not only were they stuck in shallow waters until the wind picked up, but they didn't seem to have that much fire-power compared to the Marines, and even if they did manage to get into deeper waters, they weren't going anywhere for a while. Checking cautiously over her shoulder, she secured both her guns in their holsters, Tatsu was preoccupied with steering so if she wasn't gone too long... "Don't even think about it" he warned. She glared at him, her temper instantly snapping.

"Just becuase you're an arse doesn't mean everyone else is"

He turned to face her, not rising to the insult "We have to keep a low profile" he reminded her

"Well fuck you and fuck your 'low profile'! I'm gonna help, and if your gonna be a dick, go do it on your own, cause I'm sick of your fucking loner attitude!" with that she left him, hopping across the water using Geppou; she was there in seconds. Tatsu sighed and slumped down onto the deck, he'd always known that they wouldn't be able to stay undercover for this long anyway, so might as well go with a bang. He turned the boat and steered it back to the two ships.

_~S~_

Sanji looked up and watched as the purple haired girl span artfully over him. She was now wearing baggy camouflage cargo-pants, a white top and a cropped denim jacket with the sleeves rolled up, and a yellow neckerchief, tied round her waist was a dark hoodie; he caught a glimpse of what might of been a gun holster beneath the hoodie. "_Mellorine~_!" he cried joyously, kicking several Marines in the face at the same time.

Noticing him, she winked playfully and he melted on the spot. Her leg extended as she neared the ground and she kicked a marine in the back of the head, knocking him flying so he knocked out several of his comrades. Still in midair, she spun again, knocking another marine flying, with the same results. Almost weightlessly she landed on deck, kind of reminding Sanji of a cat. As she sprung back upright - having landed in a crouching position - her elbow cracked into a Marine's jaw and she span, giving a upper-cut to his ribs before swiftly turning, falling back on one hand and striking her legs up in the air. "Rankyaku" she said, as a sharp blade of highly compressed air shot out from the end of her legs. The white blades of compressed air cut a gaping hole in the deck, and several marines falling through it.

Sanji gawked, she was using the same techniques that those CP9 agents used. Frankly he didn't care at the moment, he was just glad that she was on their side.

Hitomi grinned when she heard the distinct 'wooshing' sound that could only accompany one person and she quickly Geppou-ed off the marines ship and onto the straw-hats, grabbing Sanji and Zoro by the scruff of their necks as she did. While she landed softly on deck, the two guys landed with a harsh 'ooft'. "What the hell d'you think you're doing?" yelled Zoro angrily

"Don't yell at Hitomi-chan!" Sanji yelled back at them, but she wasn't listening to either of them, she was waving Luffy over. Reluctantly he listened.

"Wha~t?" he whined "I was having fun!" Thankfully, the marine ship was too big to anchor in the shallower waters, so they were safe as long as Zoro and Sanji kept the cannon balls away from the ship.

"We're getting out of here, hold onto something" she warned, getting a tight grip on the railing.

At first they didn't notice it, but a red and purple blur was moving through mid-air towards the ship. Suddenly the sails raised. "Kyozetsu supēsu!" yelled a man's voice, one the more intelligent team mates recognised. Some kind of field exploded over the back of the ship and they fired forwards, as if Coup de Burst had been activated - but they didn't even have enough Cola for Franky at the moment so it couldn't be. Everyone clung on for dear life as they rocketed forward, Chopper and Usopp screaming in terror and Luffy simply loving every minuet of it.

Eventually the boat stilled in the water, and people could finnaly relax, though it felt like forever, they'd only been traveling for a few seconds. There was an island not to far ahead of them and it clearly wasn't the one they'd been at before. It was a huge, mountainous island with thick forests and snow.

Suddenly, Tatsu was stood with them; he was now wearing purple skinny jeans with battered military-style boots and a plain long-sleeved top with an open navy shirt "Oi," he said, slightly breathlessly to Nami, he waved her over and gently grabbed her arm with the log-pose on it, then comparing it to the one that was on his own wrist - made of some kind of blue metal. "It's fine, we were going in the same direction anyway" he said, bracing his hands on his knees and hanging his head in exhaustion.

"Are you okay?" asked Chopper cautiously, being the first to notice the sweat that had broken out on his forehead.

"Yeah, this ship's just a bit heavier than Biscuit" he said, the strain of keeping himself upright showing in his voice

"No way!" cried Usopp "You carried Sunny?"

"Don't be daft... it would be more accurate to say I pushed it" now he'd finally caught his breath, Tatsu could stand upright, but he was still a little pale and there were small beads of sweat on his forehead, which he quickly wiped away. "I don't think a wind we pick up for a while, but this is as far as I could take you - sorry."

"It's cool red-bro!" said Franky "You were suuuuu-paaa!"

While Franky, Chopper, Usopp and Luffy marveled at how 'cool' Tatsu, Hitomi watched him scrutinisingly, which wasn't missed by Robin. "Kunoichi-san?"

"Say, does your crew have a doctor?" she asked, Robin didn't say anything, but Hitomi clearly assumed yes "And if you came across someone who was seriously ill, that wasn't on your crew, would they still treat them?"

"Yes, probably"

"Oh, that's good then" she decided, before tapping her brother on the shoulder. When he turned, she grabbed his shoulder tightly and stabbed two fingers into his stomach, just below his rib-cage. Frozen, Tatsu stayed doubled over her hand, her hand shifted and blood spattered out his mouth; then she withdrew her hand and he dropped to the ground, unconscious. And sounding surprisingly calm, she spoke, "I hate to call the favour so early, but seeing as he saved your lives I think you could save his don't you?" she said directly to Chopper, ignoring the horrified looks of the rest of the crew - excluding Luffy and Zoro, who seemed to understand and recognise the look on her face.

"B-b-b-b-b-y-y-you-you...?" stammered Chopper

"He's a dick, thinks he's too smart to get ill, but he's been like this for the past three islands we docked at, and that's like" she counted on her fingers "Two months or something. Think you could do anything?"

Unsure, Chopper looked at Luffy, who - glancing away from Hitomi - nodded. "Okay" He murmured, before changing into his Heavy-Point and picking up Tatsu carefully, carrying him to the infirmary quickly.

"Awesome dude" she said as he jogged away "Now how're-" she froze, a look of bored annoyance on her face. She sighed; before vaulting over the side of the ship shouting "Drop it you fucker!" The crew ran to the side of the ship to see what she was going on about.

The blue boat - looking worse than ever - was bobbing in the water, the sails were now down; but that wasn't the only thing. A man - a Marine - was stood on deck, talking on a mini Den-den-Mushi. He instantly stopped talking as he saw Hitomi vault over the side of the ship, and he was going to be crushed by her unless he moved out the way quickly. Instead of moving, he drew his sword and stood intending to cut her in half.

Moving so quickly anyone barely saw it, she reached underneath her hoodie at the back and pulled out two katana - Only Zoro knew that the slightly shorter of the two was a Kodachi, while the longer was a Wakizashi. She sliced one blade down the length of his sword and twisted it out his hand, tossing it effortlessly into the water and kicking the mini-Mushi along with it. Holding the Wakizashi at the back of his neck and the point of the Kodachi to his throat, she pinned him against the side with her knee. "Yo dumb-ass, D'ya know how quickly ya'd die if I slit ya throat in half?" as much as he could without cutting his own throat on the blade, he shook his head "Me neither," she grinned "but I wanna find out." He gulped "So ya' gonna tell me who's ya' captain and I'll let ya' live?"

He considered it for a moment, looking from the deadly sharp blade into her equally deadly eyes. He gulped, looking nervous, then he grinned "_Dappi semi_" he said confidently and he disappeared; aside from his marine shirt, which dropped to the ground. Slightly stunned, she sheathed her swords again "Damn it all" she muttered.

_~S~_

Having listed all Tatsu's symptoms and deciding that there was no imminent threat to his life, Chopper flicked through his books, specifically at the ones he'd acquired most recently, looking for any sicknesses with all these symptoms as he couldn't name one off the top of his head. Then he turned the page.

_'Nana-nichi no shi'_ read the title, and all the symptoms were there too. _Death in seven days _is what it translated to, but hadn't Hitomi said...? _"That's like two months or something?"_ Two months, he'd had this for two months and he was still alive. And as if the title wasn't clear enough, it said in the very first paragraph '_Anyone who contracts this disease has a maximum of seven days to live and must be treated within the first three days else death is near immanant'_ Chopper froze for a moment and continued to read _'Seven-Day Island is the prime source of this disease and is transferred by cross-blood-contamination, so overall very difficult to contract. There are only two ways it can be treated: one is in its early stages and through blood-purification herbs, the second is in the later stages and through the method of blood-purification.'_ A shiver shot down Chopper's spine, the method it listed here was a practically medieval method for blood purifiaction, surely there was a better method?

_~S~_

Patiently, Hitomi lay on the grass deck, watching clouds drift slowly overhead. A light wind had picked up and they were drifting slowly and steadily towards the island. She sighed heavily, if Tatsu was still sick by the time they got to the island then their chances of winning the Tanto Island competitions were fucked, cause you had to be in pairs.


	3. Chapter 3

_Authors, Note: Please excuse any spelling mistakes, It was very late at night when I wrote this._

**Chapter 3 - 216 million**

Zoro looked round. Where the hell was he? He was so sure he'd been here before, the trees all looked the same; but there was no way he was lost, so he just carried on walking. They'd docked in the town a few hours ago and he'd only gone for a walk and ended up here - where ever _here_ was. The sun was beginning to set and he wondered if he'd be able to find his way out of this maze of a forest and back into the main town. Then, just ahead of him, trough the trees, he saw a blur of something. Unsure of weather it was friend or foe, he placed one hand on the hilt of his swords and ducked behind a tree. Suddenly there was a rustling very near him and he turned, greeted by a fist mere inches from his face. It looked as if it had simply fallen short of a hit, but his eyes carried on down the arm to a familiar face.

"Come to kidnap me or something?" she asked. She looked as is she had been training, she'd shead her jacket, hoodie and swords; and there was a thin shean of sweat across her skin. "'Cause I ain't joining you" she dropped her fist. Luffy had been pretty persistant in getting her to join his crew, no wonder she was susspicious.

"Che' No." he said, slightly offended "I'm trying to find my way back to the town"

She stared at him, then looked at the way he'd just come "You know you're going the wrong way right?" she asked "You're walking away from the Town. Just turn back the way you came and it'll take you about five minuets" Nodding in thanks he skirted round her and went back the way he came "Left!" she shouted after him "Left you idiot!" He turned. "Your other frigging left!" she yelled, she sounded pretty annoyed.

One hour later and Zoro was back where he started. He stood facing Hitomi, feeling slightly embarraced. There was a vein pulsing in her forehead and she looked about ready to snap. Frankly he blamed her, the directions she'd given where terrible. "Oh for..." she tied her hoodie back round her waist and tucked her swords into her belt, picking up her jacket and storming off "Just follow me you prick" she said angrilly, then, a few moments later, she came back and grabbed him by his ear, dragging him after her, saying "Where the hell are you going?" she asked furiously when he walked in what was blatantly the wrong direction "_This_ way dumb-ass!"

_~S~_

Sanji's eyebrow twitched. That stupid Marimo was lost again, seemed like someone was going to have to go find sun had set about an hour ago and that idiot had even less chance of finding his way back in the dark. He was about to go looking when he heard a loud scolding from not too far away. Sanji looked over the side of the ship to see Hitomi and Zoro - who was doubled over with every stomp on the back of his head "_Here._ You. Fucking. Idiot. How. Can you. Not. Find. Your own. Goddam. Ship!" she said with each blow.

Overcome with laughter and annoyence at the same time, Sanji snikered for a moment before yelling "Oi! Marimo! How dare you trouble lovely Hitomi-chan with your idiocy!"

"Shut up Dart-Br" he was cut off by a well-placed blow from Hitomi's fist "What the hell?" he asked angrilly, tears of pain stinging his eyes

"Oh shut-up you prick," she said, calmer now. "And get on the ship before you wander off again"

Grumbling, Zoro climbed the rope-ladder onto the ship. "Hitomi-ch~wan!" cried Sanji, waving manically, "Will you be joining us for dinner~?"

Shrugging, she climbed aboard. It wasn't like she had much money left to buy anything any way.

_~S~_

Chopper looked over Tatsu again, still stumped. The blood-purifying herbs were working, eventhough he'd probably had this disease for longer than any book indicated was possible. He should be dead. But Chopper was just glad that he wasn't, and that it was working, even if it was slow.

_~S~_

When they sat down to dinner, only moments into the hectic meal, Hitomi burst out laughing. Drawing the attention of the entire crew "Whats so funny?" asked Nami, as the table fell silent aside from Hitomi's loud laughter. Trying to silence herself, she wiped tears from the corners of her eyes.

"Dear god, it's like being back home..." she forced through the laughter, looking up and catching a glimpse of Luffy - who was stealing food off peoples plates and still eating - this set off the laughter again, but still she spoke "I've got like twelve brothers so you have no idea how funny this is for me" she choked, taking deep breaths to still the laughter

"Twelve brothers?" yelled Usopp in shock

"Not including Tatsu, so there's..." she counted on her fingers for a moment

"-Fourteen of you?" suggested Robin

"Oh yeah! I-"

There was a hollor from outside "Excuse me! Is there anyone there? Kyu Natsu Siblings? Hello? I was wondering if you'd be interested in the Tanto Island competitions this year?"

The rest of the straw-hats had gone back to their food, and Hitomi sighed. "Were you and Saientisuto-san going to enter? You tow are the 'Kyu Natsu' siblings arent you?" asked Robin, having heard about the competition in the town and knowing that the two were also known as the 'Kyu Natsu siblings'.

"Well I can't without a partner so _pfft"_ she shrugged non-chalantly. To their surprise Luffy had been listening.

"I'll be your partner" he said, gulping down a Luffy-sized-mouthful of meat "And when we win you'll join my crew" he said brightly.

_~S~_

The next day, Hitomi went to the arena to enter herself and Luffy, accompanied by most of the straw-hat crew; the moment Nami had found out about the cash prize, she'd demanded the rest of the crew enter and that when they win all the winnings go towards the crews 'allowence' (Unless of course her and Usopp won, in which case half the winnings would be hers alone). Nami had been none too happy to find out from Robin that if Luffy and Hitomi won, that they were likely to only get half the anticipated winnings. After excluding Chopper, because he was still looking after Tatsu, the pairs where as thus: Luffy and Hitomi, Zoro and Sanji, Franky and Robin, and Nami and Usopp

Hitomi walked back over to Luffy, having finally managed to get them registered through Zoro and Sanji's constant protesting at being paired together. It was early and the contest didn't start for another half-hour yet. So she had time to explain her battle-plan to Luffy. As they made their way towards the contestants stands, she slung her arm round his shoulders and pulled him in close to whisper.

"The qualifying rounds are easy." she said "When happens is, every pair, fights every other pair. You get ten points for a win, five for a draw, and zero for a loose. So we've just got to win as many matches as we can, the more points, the easier it is to get through to the next round. Only the ten teams with the most points get through the proper competition."

"Right" he said with such certainty that Hitomi couldn't help but doubt him slightly

"Do you have any idea what I just said?" she asked, and he - quite confidentally - said no. "Right, we just need to win Luffy. And to do that, we need to work together, so here's my plan..." she explained it to him in the most basic way she could think of, which was a change to the detailed plans she'd gone through with Tatsu in previous years - so this was quite refreshing. Clearly, Luffy understood this kind of thing, cause he nodded and smiled, then high-fived her.

Sanji and Zoro followed not far after Hitomi and Luffy; Sanji was fuming. "That damn Luffy... being so close to Hitomi-chan" he gritted through his teath.

"Shut up dart-brow" muttered Zoro, cleaning out his ear with his little finger.

_~S~_

The arena was huge, it would have comfortably accomodated the sunny six times over. The stands were at the top of the thirty foot high concrete wall, that was at least twenty feet deep. There was and entrance at either end of the arena, which was where the competeing pairs would enter, the audience entered through the stairs at the back Although these were only qualifying rounds, the stands were full with cheering crowds, some waving banners with names of contestants or 'team names' painted on them, others just simply stating things like 'Fight!' or 'Tanto Island!', there were one or two advertisments as well.

"HELOOOO~ FIGHTING FANS!" yelled a voice, resounding out over the arena though the speaker Den-Den Mushi placed at regular intervals along the roof of the stands. "ARE YOU READY FOR THIS YEARS COMPETETORS?" the man yelling was stood in the center of the arena and the crowd responded with a deafening cheer, clearly they'd had allot of practice. The man was dressed in a purple suit with white shirt and his hair was slicked back in a quiff.

_~S~_

Hitomi stared blankly at Nami and Usopp from her bench, who were both in 'disguise'. They were currently waiting in the 'rooms' that led of from the long corridor that led to the arena, strobe lights lit all the way down.

"Remind me why again?" she asked, slightly muffled as she was leaning her hand on her chin.

"Because-" said Nami, slightly annoyed now "-otherwise the Marines would know who we are"

Sounding almost tired, Hitomi pointed out the obvious "What about the ship, there aren't many like that, and you're bearing your jolly roger."

"We've hidden it round the island, away from the town"

"I think it'll be pretty obvious who you are once you start fighting, with the others here, they'll do the math pretty quick. And marine's don't often come to this island anyway, cause they get their asses kicked - it's a pretty much a rouge island you know. Besides, if they do show up, there's plenty higher bounties than yours and I doubt Luffy would let one of his nakama be taken my marines. No one on this island would stand for it anyway, they're not a fan of the marines."

Nami grabbed Hitomi by the front of her shirt "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS BEFORE?" she yelled in her face "BEFORE I SPENT MONEY ON THESE DISGUISES"

"Didn't you see the flag on the way in?" she asked, not even flinching "It was Whitebeards flag, they're like, everywhere. This is Whitebeards territory, he claimed the island years ago so anyone could fight in the contest without everyone having to worry about the marines turning up"

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, SAY IMPORTANT STUFF FIRST!" Nami yelled, shaking Hitomi violently by her shirt

"You didn't ask" she pointed out. The only thing stopping Nami from throttling Hitomi then and there was the loud shout from the arena (the commentary and a live vewing was being fed into the rooms via Den-Den Mushi mikes and cameras)

"AND WE'LL SPIN OUR MATCH-O-METER AND SEE WHO'S UP FIRST!" there was a dramatic 'ooooooo' from the audience that grew in volume until the 'match-o-meter' evidentally stopped and the crowds burst into cheers "THE BOULDER BROTHERS VS. TEAM 2-16"

"Come on Luffy, that's us. Just remember the game plan?"

Luffy gave a wide grin and high-fived her as they left down the long corridor. The remaining straw-hats listened to the commentary as they left. "VERY FEW OF YOU WILL OF HEARD OF 'TEAM 2-16' BEFORE, AND THAT'S CAUSE THEY'RE ONE OF THE ALL NEW TEAMS ENTERING THIS YEAR!" there was a loud cheer "COMPOSED OF ONE HALF OF THE FOUR-YEAR-RUNNING-WINNERS THE 'KYU NATSU SIBLINGS' " another cheer, longer this time, with a chant of 'Tatsu, Ch-o, Tatsu, Ch-o "AND THE _CAPTAIN_ OF THE STRAW-HAT PIRATES, THEIR COMBINED BOUNTIES ARE TWO-HUNDRED-AND-SIXTEEN-MILLION BELLI," there were more cheers and shouts, ooh-ing mostly "IT'S KUNOICHI - HITOMI CHO!" loud cheers as they watched Hitomi burst forward into the stadium and launching herself into the air performing a triple front flip - landing solidly on her feet - for the wildly cheering crowd and ending near the center of the stadium, punching the air towards one side of the crowd, then the other. She was playing the crowd quite well, Robin noticed. "AND PIRATE - STRAW-HAT LUFFY!" again, the crowd cheered wildly as Luffy made his equally dramatic entrance by shooting his arm forward to grab hold of Hitomi's outstreached hand and shoot into the arena - then straight into the announcer, which earned laughter from the audience.

"Hang on," worked out Usopp "Luffy's bounty is 200 million right? Which means Hitomi-san's is only 16 million. But there's no way, the way she was fighting the other day..." he trailed off, disbelieving that Hitomi's bounty was no higher than Nami's, when she was clearly the better fighter if she could take on marines bare-handed.

"Maybe she hasn't done anything to anger the marines" suggested Sanji.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 - In good health**

Chopper received the shock of his life when he walked into his infirmary to see Tatsu sitting up and scratching his head, looking round as if he was slightly lost. The colour had returned to his skin and his eyes were no longer blood-shot.

"Yo," he said, raising his hand in greeting "you gonna tell me what happened?"

Stammering for a moment, Chopper began to explain how he'd collapsed (with a little assistance from Hitomi) then began going into detail about his illness and treatment, very much surprised to see a look of complete understanding on the man's face through the entire explanation - Hitomi had mentioned that her brother was a 'smart-arsed bastard', so Chopper guessed that this was what she meant; and of course, he was a scientist. "But what I didn't understand" Chopper concluded "Was why you held off the infection for so long, when all the books said you should be dead in a day."

Tatsu laughed lightly, running a hand through his hair and grasping the longer layer at the back of his hair, and briefly wondering why the braid was gone before looking at the blue-nosed reindeer "I don't doubt you'd understand, but..." suddenly his shinobi-trained senses kicked in and something struck him "Where's the rest of the crew?" he asked. Quickly, Chopper explained about the contest and Tatsu laughed again "Let me get changed and then I'll explain my devil-fruit to you on the way to the arena"

Less than five minuets later, Tatsu was back in his purple jeans, plain t-shirt and jacket, with his military boots. As they walked, Tatsu explained the certain advantages his devil-fruit added to his immune system, more than happy to answer any questions Chopper had about it. "That must be really useful!" cried Chopper

"Aren't all devil-fruits? But that doesn't matter now, we're here."

They looked up at the high wall surrounding the arena, they'd been able to hear the shouts and cheers all the way from the ship, but it had been gibberish, now the commentary was blaring in their ears "BLACK-LEG SANJI CAN'T SEEM TO GET PAST HIS CHIVALRY AND SIMPLY FIGHT MISS GOLD!" there was an inaudible angry yelling "AND NOW THE TWO STRAW-HATS ARE FIGHTING AGAIN! I'M NOT SURE THEY QUITE UNDERSTAND THE RULES!" there was laughter from the audience. Mounted on the wall above the crowds entrance was a huge sign reading: STRAW-HAT 1 vs. GOLDEN GIRLS. Beneath each name was a number - points so far Tatsu said. Straw-hat 1 had 900 points, the Golden Twins had 412. Suddenly there was loud cheering and booing and Straw-hat 1's score went up to 910 and displayed STRAW-HAT 1, WIN! "AND THAT'S THE 91ST WIN FOR STRAW-HAT 1! THE STRAW-HAT CREW SEEMS TO BE MADE UP OF SOME KIND OF MONSTERS DON'T THEY? OH LOOK, THEY'RE FIGHTING AGAIN LADIES AND GENTS!"

Surely enough, as Tatsu and Chopper ran up the stairs and shot to the front of the stands, Zoro and Sanji were in the centre of the arena, attempting to kill each other. Eventually the two men had to be forced out the arena so the competition continued. Chopper sat and watched eagerly as the next two pairs were introduced, but Tatsu tapped him on the shoulder and indicated for him to follow. Tatsu led him back down the stairs and outside the arena again, then down an almost hidden doorway. "Where are we going?" Chopper asked cautiously, not wanting to follow into that dark corridor.

"Come on, were gonna check everyone's all right, you're not gonna get much info from the crazies up there" he pointed back to the top of the stands, meaning the wildly cheering fans. "You can sit on my shoulders if you like" He held out the hand he didn't have permanently shoved in his pocket, and when Chopper reached out a hoof and held it, he was lifted swiftly and smoothly onto the man's shoulders. Chopper was glad that it was dark cause he was blushing at Tatsu's care, he was a natural older-brother type. Tatsu jogged quickly down the dark corridors until they reached a well-lit corridor full of doors. Not taking Chopper off his shoulders, he looked up and down the corridor for a moment before turning left and opening the eighth door they came to. The only reason Chopper knew that it was going to be full of Straw-Hats was due to his nose, he didn't know how Tatsu knew. "Hey," he said, grinning at the pirate crew and lifting Chopper off his shoulders. All the straw-hats had some form of bruising or bandaging and looked fairly worn down too.

"Oh, Saientisuto-san, you're all better then?" asked Robin, with a small smile

He smiled back "Yes, I am, thank you for your concern Robin-san"

"Ohhhh!" cried Usopp dramatically from the cot he was lying in

"Usopp!" Chopped cried in panic, running instantly to his bed side and pulling out his medical kit. Nami explained that the last pair they'd gone against had all-but beaten him within an inch of his life. It was only thanks to him that she was relatively uninjured.

Hitomi only glanced over her brother once, to check he wasn't lying before rolling her eyes and going back to the screen displaying the current fight cause it didn't look like it was going to last too long. She knew when her brother was flirting, even if it just looked like he was being friendly; but he didn't often find women he could talk to without boring them - even if his conversation with Robin on the small island the first time they'd met had only been brief - so she wasn't going to take the piss.

The fight ended quite quickly, with the obviously stronger pair winning. The crowd cheered and the next two pairs were named. Straw-hat 2.

"Yo, Aniki, Robin, you're up" she said, pointing at the screen. Franky swung round to read the words on the screen, before pulling his right arm out it's sling and flexing it once or twice, it seemed fine now - after one of the Boulder Brothers nearly smashing it into oblivion, he wasn't sure whether he'd be able to continue fighting today.

"Suuupa!" he yelled, striking a pose

Hitomi stood and began telling him about the things she'd already observed about the other pair from her previous match with them "Listen," she said, reaching her arms round their shoulders (or as much as she could in Franky's case) "The big guy'll go for you Robin, and the woman'll go for you Aniki, it's their main tactic. The dude's allot stronger but their both quite smart and avoid any contact for too long if you can, there's something they're using that drains your strength on contact. The dude guards on left, so try to feint left then go for right - it's his weaker side. And the girl, genuinely doesn't want to muck up her face, so feint for the face and go for her ankles - she'll be down in seconds." she said all of this with a half-smirk on her face and with such familiarity that you'd think she was already part of the crew. Franky grinned and high-fived her, calling her 'Nee-chan' before marching confidentially out the room. "What's up with you?" she asked her brother, who was staring at the screen intently.

"That pair, six years ago, they're the reason we went out in the quarter-finals." he said absent-mindedly, before looking at his sister "How did you win this time?"

"Well, I couldn't touch them, so it was Luffy mainly, their ability didn't seem to affect him" she said, confused, she didn't remember fighting them before - if she did she would of known all that info before watching them fight. Tatsu nodded slowly, he wasn't surprised that she didn't remember.

The fight between Franky and Robin, and 'The Blacksmiths' had already begun, and the imbalance in ability was already evident. Robin couldn't do anything but dodge attacks as even touching them with her Hana-Hana powers was draining her strength. Franky seemed to have less of a problem cause of the metal in his body, but his arm was still a bit dodgy against that huge shield the woman kept bringing up out of no where.

Zoro and Sanji had only just managed a win and Nami and Usopp had been forced into a forfeit within five minuets of the fight starting cause they were always too close for any of their attacks to work. As he watched, Tatsu fished a pair of gloves out his pocket and threw them at his sister, exchanging a meaningful look with her

~S~

Franky watched uselessly as Robin was thrown backwards, crashing into the wall then slumping unconscious to the floor. "Nico Robin!" he yelled, ducking a blow from the woman and diving towards his nakama. Dropping to his knees by her, he didn't dare to touch her, he didn't know what kind of condition she was in. Suddenly a hulking great shadow loomed over him and another one of those goddamned shields hit him full force to the front and sent him flying away from Robin, only to be stopped by the woman's shield and nearly breaking his back.

Barely concious now, he tried to speak, trying to forfit before they were both killed. Or at least get back to Robin.

Through his sketchy gaze, he saw both the Blacksmiths make their way back to the centre of the arena and pull out two large conical shapes from their bags. They turned towards their target, fitting the conical shapes over their left arms. As he heard a loud whirring coming from them, Franky realised what the conical shapes were. Drills. They were going to be impaled on the end of drills. His hair was drooping over his eyes; mustering up the very last dregs of his strengths to admit defeat, Franky closed his eyes, as the woman ran towards him, wielding the drill above her head. A small noise came out his mouth, more of a groan of pain.

The hit was close now, he could hear it. Four meters. Three meters. Two meters. Now.

"Tekkai"

Franky opened his eyes, to see the deadly point of the drill inches from his face. The whirring noise was laboured, like there was something caught in the mechanism. No, there was nothing stopping the mechanism. Standing over his chest was another girl, one arm wrapped round the middle of the drill, stopping it from getting any closer and the other hand digging it's fingers into the metal, stopping it from spinning. Long purple hair hung down their back, swaying lightly in the back-draught from the drill. Franky couldn't believe what he was seeing, didn't she risk disqualification?

~S~

Tatsu watched as the Mammoth-of-a-man continued to charge, un-phased by his sudden appearance. The man was merely a few meters away when Tatsu raised his hand.

"Kyozetsu torabāsu" he said, raising a single hand up to the man. Nothing appeared to happen, until the mammoth-man came within two feet of Tatsu's extended hand. And a faint red ripple ran outwards from Tatsu's hand and ten feet in every direction. Instantly the man shot backwards from Tatsu, colliding with the wall at the opposite end of the arena, making a small crater and shaking the stands.

The crowds were silent and so was the referee, who had run into the arena when Tatsu and Hitomi had appeared. Tatsu turned to him "That was a win for The Blacksmiths don't you think?" he said, as there was no way he could call for a draw when him and Hitomi had stepped in for the straw-hats. The referee nodded and signalled to the commentators box. Nodding in thanks to the referee. He turned to Robin and carefully rolled her onto her back, but not before checking for broken bones; when he found none, he lifted her up bridal-style in his arms and carried her to the exit leading back to the straw-hats room. He took note of Hitomi helping Franky to his feet, he was supporting himself with an arm round Hitomi's shoulders.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 - 915/920**

Franky looked thoughtfully at the Millionaire's Biscuit (Tatsu and Hitomi's sailing boat). The damage to it was easily repaired, for him anyway. He flexed his right hand; it was nearly good-as-new. The fights started again in about ten minutes, but maybe it wouldn't hurt to miss it? Chopper was staying here to look after Robin anyway, so he could just say he didn't feel up to it and then make it a surprise for when they got back.

_~S~_

Usopp ducked Luffy's fist and rolled, before shooting pepper-bombs at him. This was the second time he'd fought his captain and he knew he couldn't win this fight either, but it looked from here that Nami may just win against Hitomi – even if Nami's Mirage Tempo didn't fool her – because she hadn't yet noticed that she was being set up for a Thunder-Lance Tempo. That was the one great advantage Nami had over Hitomi, she was considerably smarter.

"Thunder Lance Tempo!" she yelled and a bolt of lightning cut through Hitomi, her swords clattering to the ground. When it was gone, Hitomi swayed on her feet, with a large singing hole through her shirt and jacket, the wound in her stomach blackened and bleeding. Her eyes were dead; she coughed, and coughed again, and blood spattered down her chin and onto the ground. Like she'd been struck on the top of the head, she fell to the ground.

When Hitomi woke up, every inch of her body ached, her head was spinning and all she wanted to do was throw up.

_~S~_

"Is she going to be alright?" Nami asked Chopper when he came into the kitchen after two hours with Hitomi in the infirmary, she was worried she might have fatally wounded the girl; no one else had ever been wounded that badly by that technique, not that she knew of anyway.

"She'll be alright" nodded the reindeer "but she can't eat solids for a while, and she keeps vomiting, which is worrying, I don't know what happened for her to be wounded this bad"

Tatsu, who had been examining his sister's weapons and singed shirt, spoke up "I think I might have an answer to that" he said, pushing his glasses onto the top of his head to look at them. He held up the shorter of her two swords and pulled the gasses back onto his face as they came over to look "Look here," he pointed to the tip of the sword and then to the hilt "the burning on the blades and wrappings are consistent with those on her shirt,"

"So?" asked Nami, not sure how this was relevant

"_So_, the charge hit her in the back, but on exit out her abdomen, the charge connected with her swords, travelled down the blade and back into her" he placed the blade down on the table and put his glasses on the top of his head again "So, she 'got a double dose' so to speak, the same charge went through her twice"

"Oh my god I've killed her" said Nami, looking horrified

He laughed lightly "Not quite, her shoes had rubber soles so that conducted some of it into the ground. Give it a day or two and she'll be back on her…feet. Oh for god's sake…" he sighed, rubbing his forehead, just as Hitomi burst in wearing an open plaid shirt over the bandaging that covered from her hips to her armpits.

"Sup people?" she asked, sitting down and putting her feet up on the table, flinching and putting them down again

"Ahh! What are you doing? Get back to the infirmary!" screamed Chopper "Your wounds will open again! And I only just stopped the internal bleeding!"

"Meh, I'll live I reckon" she said decisively and Tatsu smacked himself on the forehead.

_~S~_

The fight between Luffy and Hitomi, and Sanji and Zoro (that had occurred before Nami had wounded Hitomi) had been interesting to say the least. At the end of the ten minutes they had for each fight, neither pair showed any signs of wearing down or surrendering at all, so the referee had to call a draw; the only draw either pair had scored in their straight run of wins throughout the contest. Franky and Robin had been eliminated from the running (Robin wouldn't be fit enough to fight for another week yet, at the very least anyway) and so had Nami and Usopp, due to Usopp's sudden case of 'can't-compete-in-this-competition-any-more-or-I'll-die' disease - Nami was annoyed to say the least.

Tatsu explained that only the top five pairs from this island would get through to the actually competition. Along with five pairs from each of the competing islands, that was a total of thirty-five pairs. There was one island in each of the seas: one each in east, west, north and south blue, then this one in the first half of Grand Line, and the remaining island in the second half of Grand Line - or the New World as it was better known. Thankfully the finals were being held here on Tanto Island this year, because sometimes they switched due to the Monsoon season that frequently occurred on this island.

The majority of the crew were currently pouring over the competitors lists that Hitomi claimed she 'found' while on a walk round the village. Team 2-16 and Straw-hat 1 had qualified with the highest scores (nine-hundred-and-fifteen out of a potential nine-hundred-and-twenty points) closely followed by all five pairs from New World, then the rest of the list was fairly mixed. Hitomi had also 'found' the Intel on most of the teams. They contained what Tatsu said was a 'Radar Chart' of strengths and weaknesses. There were six axis on the Radar Chart, labelled: Long-Range, Mid-Range, Close-Range, Strength, Intelligence and Weapons. Each axis had a scale of 1 to 10

Luffy's was what you'd expect of him; all three ranges were quite high (about 9 for each), as was the Strength (10), Intelligence was quite low (1.5) and Weapons was at 0. Sanji's was also predictable; Long-Range = 0, Mid-Range = 4 (probably only due to the combination he'd used with Zoro), Close-Range = 10, Strength = 7, Intelligence = 5.5 (he'd had marks deducted because of his out-right refusal to right women) and Weapons = 0. Zoro's was a little surprising in places; Long-Range = 0, Mid-Range = 3, Close-Range = 10, Strength = 9 and Intelligence = 7 (He was currently bragging at - and fighting with - Sanji about his 'superior intelligence'), Weapons = 8.5 (no one was sure why he hadn't achieved a 10). Hitomi's wasn't what they'd expected from watching her fight; Long-Range = 3, Mid-Range = 5, Close-Range = 9, Strength = 6, Intelligence = 9, Weapons = 10.

"Wow," muttered Nami, reading Hitomi's again "How did she get a 9 for intelligence? She seems a bit..." she looked out onto the grass deck, where Hitomi was currently playing Blind-man's-buff with Usopp, Luffy and Chopper - Usopp was 'on' at the moment. Hitomi jumped silently to one side of the ship – she'd healed well – and laughed as he stumbled over his own feet and face-first into the mast. Usopp then declared that he 'had her now' and bolted for her before she could move. Hitomi ducked under his arms and swept a leg under is feet; Usopp tumbled almost tumbled comically over the side of the ship, but Hitomi grabbed him by the waistband of the underwear that was showing over his trousers and yanked them upwards. As Usopp yelped in pain, clutching his crotch, the other three fell about laughing. Hitomi tried to perch herself on the railing, but was laughing so much she nearly fell off backwards, only just managing to keep her balance before she fell in the sea; this made Luffy, Usopp and Chopper fall about laughing, rolling on the deck. Nami sweat-dropped as she watched.

Tatsu chuckled "Yeah, she is quite ditzy, but this only takes into account intelligence towards fighting skills, not over-all intelligence, if it did, she'd be about a 2" very shortly after he finished this statement, a boot struck him in the side of the head. After recovering, he turned to see a fuming Hitomi. She was wearing only one shoe.

"Who you callin' dumb? Ya' dumb-ass!"

Tatsu chuckled lightly, and tossed the boot back "Doesn't matter"

She squinted dangerously at him for a moment before being distracted by a rugby-tackle from Luffy.

_~S~_

Just from the look of the dimly-lit room you could tell it belonged to someone wealthy; the only sources of light were a small fire burning in the hearth of a huge, ornate, fire-place and a half a candle burning in its polished brass stand on a dark-oak table. A heavy, Persian rug - even though it was several feet in width and length - covered only a small portion of the spotless wooden floor of the enormous room. Upon the Persian rug was the table that bore the candle, and an armchair - that showed signs of previous grandeur - but was now, however, worn and old; yet it did not take from the room, it only accented on the almost Gothic look the room had achieved through years of dis-use. Had the light expanded further over the room, the portraits and paintings hung on the ancient walls would have been visible; the largest, that of a long-deceased man - a man with deep-set wrinkles and a wise, fearsome face - hung above the fireplace, looming over the entire room. Thick, heavy curtains shielded stained-glass windows and blocked out any light that might have crept through the raging thunderstorm outside. An expanse of dust and cobwebs, gathered over years, covered every untouched inch of the room. Plants had long-since begun to work their way into the walls, but far-from destroying or crumbling the ancient stone walls, it held them steadfastly upright.

A man sat in the armchair. He carried the same Gothic air as the rest of the room; his clothes - though prim and proper - were dusty, ragged and loose-fitting. His shoulders were hunched up to his ears as he cradled a small box, muttering to one in particular. His voice was raspy and suited an elderly man more than it did this gentleman; although, from looking at his face, it was impossible to tell his age. His eyes were old yet younger than his face; wrinkles ran through his young face, and his hands shook like those of an elderly man.

"_You still want to play Imoto-chan? But Onii-san is tired, and your friends were only just here... oh, they're gone? ... You want more? ... Okay, Onii-san will find you some friends to play with soon... who you say? ... You want to teach the nasty man a lesson? ... You're right they did escape... so how? ... Oh, you are very clever Imoto-chan, Onii-san will find them in the morning, but now he must sleep_" Steadily he rose, and though he didn't stumble or require a cane, he moved stiffly and slowly from his chair. Tucking the box against his chest, he picked up the candle and left the room, the moment the oak door rumbled shut behind him, the fireplace went out, as if someone had doused it with water.

_~S~_

Tatsu laughed with the rest of the group (excluding Luffy, Usopp and Chopper, who were outside, playing games with the islands children), watching Franky and Hitomi joining the line-dance. Spirits were high on the Island and Tatsu and Hitomi had taken the crew to their favourite bar - picked from previous visits to the island – in celebration of Hitomi's and Robin's good health. It was a cowboy-themed bar and most people were dressed appropriately (not hard for Robin, but unfortunately). As usual Tatsu wasn't too happy with Hitomi's choice of clothes, but that fact rarely changed; she was wearing frayed denim shorts, a yellow plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and tucked into her shorts to hide the bandages that were still there as a precaution, cowboy boots and hat, and her hair was split into two braids.

The song ended, Franky bowed, sweeping his hat off his head, and Hitomi curtsied, then practically bounced up to the table. "You guys are _so_ boring!" she declared "Dance with me" she demanded of Tatsu, banging her palms down flat on the table. He raised his eyebrow, chewing on a cocktail-stick. "Fine then don't. Miserable bastard" She swung down into an empty seat, just as two girls walked up to their table. Well, one of them did, the younger girl looked terrified and appeared to have been dragged over.

"Excuse me?" asked the woman - possibly the only female in the entire place that was fully clothed, or dressed more like a man depending on how you looked at it. She was somewhere in her twenties, curvy and wearing jeans, shirt, plain shoes and cowboy hat, her dark brown hair was pulled into a ponytail. The smaller girl was wearing matching blue skirt and top and her dark brown hair was curled. Presumably they were sisters. Sanji instantly leaped into action.

"What can I do for two lovely ladies?" he asked, taking the smaller girls hand gently, but the woman swatted him away roughly, before nudging the smaller girl forward

Already crimson, the girl stumbled over her feet, and then her words "Um, Ta-Tatsu-s-san, would-would you like to-um-to, um..."

"Would you like to dance?" asked Tatsu, giving her his best 'manly smile', she nodded quickly squeaking a 'yes please', before he got up and offered his elbow, leading her to the dance floor. As they left the table, Hitomi gave her brother the finger behind his back, earning laughter from the group.

"I like your shirt" said the woman, causing Hitomi to stop swearing at her brother and turn back to her.

"I bet you do" she smirked, returning the casual flirting look the woman was giving her.

"You're Hitomi Cho"

"I am"

"I'm Aimi"

"You are" both women smirked, and Aimi blushed a little, Hitomi was referring to the name meaning

"Can I buy you a drink?"

Hitomi considered it, eying the woman up and down "Go on then"

The straw hats fell into a stunned silence as the two women left. Robin gave her trademark laugh.

"I-is she...?" asked Nami, unsure of quite what she'd just seen. Sanji's mind seemed to have gone into over drive, as his nose started bleeding. Robin laughed again.


End file.
